Knowing provider makes choice easier for parents

Susannah Dorton usually can't wait to go to school, or at least what the 2-year-old calls school. Her parents, who call it day care, are relieved their daughter is so happy there.

"She really enjoys it," said her mother, Virginia Dorton. "She's happy to see me in the afternoons, but she runs to her friends in the morning. I don't think she suffers any ill effects from it. I think she's a very happy child."

Dorton said Susannah rarely cries when she gets to day care.

"It's really nice to have that peace of mind," Dorton said. "I don't have to worry about her so much."

Susannah attends Sweet Beginnings Day Care, in part because of the woman who runs the center, Amy Dickson.

Dickson originally cared for Susannah before starting the center. Making the choice to keep Susannah with Dickson was easy, Dorton said.

"It's the same provider, just a different setting," she said. "(Susannah) has done really well with it. And all her friends from Amy's have made the switch, and now she has some new friends."

Dorton said she began looking for a day-care center while she was pregnant because she knew there would be waiting lists at many of the better centers.

She also sought the recommendation of friends, neighbors and members of her church congregation.

"I started calling around, and most of the centers were very helpful," she said. "They volunteered the information I was about to ask for."

She finally settled on a home in part because of how it made her feel.

"I guess I felt like if she was in someone's home maybe it would lessen my guilt about leaving her," she said. "You don't ever get over that. There's always a little bit of guilt that maybe she should be at home. But she's happy where she is."

Jamie Thomas also was concerned about finding the best day care for her daughter, Lee Robin Thomas, 2.

She decided to go with Charlie Brown day-care center in Idalou, the same center her son, now 21, attended.

"I have mixed feelings about (home care)," she said. "Children need to be in an environment where they're stimulated with a variety of play experiences. I didn't want her watching TV all day long."

Thomas said she made sure the homes she did look at were licensed because then the operators are more accountable for their actions.

Lee Robin has adjusted well to the day-care center and has made many good friends, her mother said.

"When she's home, she likes to be home for a day or so," Thomas said. "But if it's much longer than that, she gets bored. She has her friends, and they look forward to each other."

Thomas admits day care took some getting used to, both for Lee Robin and for her.

"You have to realize that it's traumatic for you too," she said. "But, how you handle it is how they're going to handle it. Probably one of the hardest things you do is to put a child in day care. It can be as hard on the mother as the child."